(A/N): So, I started writing this chapter yesterday, but was taken out by a godawful migraine, so here it is today.

Elaine

It was just after dinner on the first Monday of Christmas Holidays, when we were hanging out in the Gryffindor common room, that Alice approached me.

"Elaine, can I talk to you for sec?" Conversation in our little group stopped for a second, before James launched a cushion at Sirius, and a pillow fight broke out between the two. I stood from my place between Remus and Lily, and followed Alice over to a quieter spot near the stairs.

"What's wrong Alice?" She looked nervous, and she wrung her hands together as she considered me.

"I don't know that anythings wrong, per se, but..." She winced. "There are kind of a lot of owls in the dorm, and they're all for you." My heart sank.

"Do you know who they're from?" She seemed unsure, and shrugged.

"One of them's your owl, Lawrence, I know that. The other two I don't recognize." Which wasn't good news, considering the last time I got a mysterious letter it was from my father. I glanced at my friends, then put my hand on Alice's arm.

"Thanks for telling me Alice. I'll let the others know whats going on, then I'll head on up, okay?" She bit her lip and nodded, looking like she was worried for me. I walked back over to the couches where my friends were lounging, and they immediately stopped talking to check on me.

"What's going on?" Lily asked, and I winced.

"Apparently, there are three owls waiting for me up in the dorm." Everyone looked sort of concerned- receiving three owls at the same time wasn't a common occurrence- but Remus definitely looked more worried than the others, considering he was the only one here who knew about the letter from my father. Well, the others knew about the letter, but not who it was from or what it was about, which is the crucial information.

"Do you- do you want me to come with you?" Lily tried, and I thought about it for a second. The last time my father had sent me a letter I had had a breakdown, which is how Lily found me. But there hadn't been anything Lily could do back then, and she'd had to get Leo to come up to comfort me anyway. Leo wouldn't be here to comfort me this time, and any of the three letters might contain sensitive information- we were waiting on a reply from Leo, after all, and he was the last person I had sent Lawrence to, so it made sense my owl was here because of him. In the end, I decided there wasn't much point in asking Lily to come up with me, when there wouldn't really but much she was able to do, and the letters were likely to be confidential anyway.

"I don't think that's a good idea. You stay here, and if I'm not back in half an hour-" I glanced at Remus. "Uh... Come check on me?" She didn't seem all that happy with this arrangement, but she agreed nonetheless.

"Alright. Call us if you need anything." Sirius said, patting me on the shoulder in what I guess he thought was a comforting gesture, before sending me off in the direction of the stairs.

The climb up to the dorm gave me unwanted time to think about who the letters might be from, and what they might contain, and when I opened the door to the girls fifth year dormitory, my fears were confirmed. There, by the windowsill, was my fathers owl, a big black blob of feathers only broken up by the little white specks that dusted its entire body. It stared at me with its big black eyes, as if daring me to take its burden from it, and I moved onto the other two birds first, to give myself time to prepare for whatever that letter would say.

On the dresser by my bed was my owl, Lawrence, and a familiar face that was very welcome in my dorm at the moment- Jay's owl, Cecil. Cecil had been Jay's owl since he had started Hogwarts, and since I had started Hogwarts with my owl, Cecil had mostly retired to being the family owl- something he had quite enjoyed, being the lazy, food orientated bird that he was.

I inspected the letter attached to Lawrence and immediately recognized Leo's handwriting, which put my mind mostly at ease, before I regarded Cecil's cargo, on which my name was clearly written by my mothers hand. I considered the three, and decided it'd probably be best to open the letter from my mother first, then Leo, and finally my fathers letter last.

I offered Cecil a treat from the container I kept in my top drawer which he garbled down in an instant, before I relieved him of his letter.

"Good boy, Cecil." I absent-mindedly praised, picking apart the envelope and smoothing the parchment flat.

Elaine,

Your father dropped by last night.

My heart sank, even though I had well and truly already seen that turn of events coming.

We had a conversation, and he left on his own. No one was hurt.

I was slightly surprised that there hadn't been a scuffle, but I was supremely grateful there wasn't. If she was telling me the truth, that is. I eyed Leo's letter, still attached to Lawrence. If there was something she wasn't telling me, it'd probably be in there.

Your friend Leo dropped by this morning, with his aunt.

He what?! With his what?! I almost switched letters, but in the end I kept my head.

He offered his family's protection from Tarea, and gave us each a charm to get in contact with them if we need them.

That sounded like a good idea, just not a move I saw Leo making in a thousand years.

He seems like a very nice young man.

Just don't tell me I should marry him again, and we're fine.

I don't doubt you'll be getting a letter from your father soon, he seemed rather upset when we told him you had decided not to come home for the holidays.

I looked at the sooty owl by the window, and shook my head. I shouldn't be surprised she knew him so well, considering they were married for more than a decade.

I love you,

Audrey (Mum)

I put the letter down, and immediately grabbed Leo's letter from Lawrence.

Dear Elaine,

This isn't a shared letter. Only share the information in this letter if you feel comfortable doing so, and make sure you sensor certain parts of it for Lily (for obvious reasons).

I smiled at Leo's warning, knowing that the last few letters had been public between the group, and that he had wanted to make sure I was comfortable with this letters contents being seen before I accidentally showed it to the others.

I don't know if they've already sent you a letter about it, but last night (Sunday) your father showed up at your house.

Indeed they had.

Don't panic, your mother and Jay are fine- a little shaken up, but unharmed.

At least I knew they hadn't missed out anything they thought might worry me.

Danniel was on watch at the time, but there wasn't much he could do because we didn't have a plan in place as to what to do if he did ever show up. He wants me to let you know he ABSOLUTELY would have stepped in if your father had raised a hand to either of them, but since the exchange was civil- well as civil as your father can be- Danniel waited until he had left and came back to the house to let me know.

I took a moment to thank Danniel in my head for being willing to intervene if it had come to that, and nervously giggled at Leo's joke about my father being civil. The only type of civil he was, was a civil dispute.

Lisbet immediately left to take over watch just in case he came back- he didn't- and we worked out a solution. I'm sorry I didn't consult you on this- we didn't have the time, and I didn't want to risk another scenario where your family were left unprotected because we didn't have measures in place.

I was grateful that they had not only immediately placed another person on watch in case he came back, but that they were also so concerned that my family might get hurt because they didn't have a plan in place that they had taken it upon themselves to create some sort of alert system to keep them safe. It was also nice that Leo had apologised for not being able to consult me on his plan ahead of time, even thought he definitely didn't have to.

The next morning, this morning (Monday) I went to your house with Lisbet.

Ah, so that's why my mother said his 'aunt' was there?

We offered your mother and Jay our services. While your mother sent Jay into the kitchen to make her tea, she asked if you knew what I was. (!)

What?!

I told her I didn't know what she was talking about-

Well, that's never going to work!

-she said that maybe you and Jay were too young to remember what Tarea dedicated his life to (vampire hunting), but she didn't have that liberty.

My mother thought Jay and I were too young to remember what dad did? Didn't she know about all the lessons he made us sit through about vampire biology and psychology and herbology?

I told her we only wanted to protect them, and she told me she wouldn't have let us in if she thought we were a threat to her or Jay.

Well... she did say she thought he was a nice young man in her letter.

We gave them each a charm that connects to a charm each of us have, so they can contact us if they ever need our help. I'll give you yours when I get back to school.

Oh, so I get one too? Cool.

Love, Leo

PS: Your mum held my hand. I tried very hard not to freak out.

... Pfft, of course she did. She was probably trying to comfort him, but of course it made Leo uncomfortable!

And then I realised. I had reached the end of Leo's letter, which only left one letter remaining.

My fathers letter.

It was sealed with a plain seal, like his letters always were, and across the front was my name. My full name, Ghislaine. I didn't want to open it, but time was running out before Lily was supposed to come check on me, so I had to pull myself together, and read the damned thing.

Getting the letter from the bird was easy enough- although I was a little concerned that maybe the thing had been trained to bite me or something- and breaking the seal put up no challenge. Unfolding the parchment put up no physical challenge, and yet it was the somehow the hardest thing I had ever had to do.

I could see the dark ink through the paper, and decided to rip it off like a bandaid.

My Dearest Daughter,

I'm your only daughter, you twat, and clearly I'm not all that dear to you.

I visited your mother and Jaygar last night, and they said you had decided to stay at Hogwarts for the Christmas Holidays.

Something I now didn't know whether to be grateful for or not.

I had hoped you would be home as I have a matter to discuss with the three of you, but I suppose I will have to try again come summer break, as I know you will have to come home at that time.

So he was waiting until he knew I had no other choice in order to force me to see him. Classy. I would have to warn Leo to be on the lookout next summer.

I would have visited this past summer, but I had an important situation to remedy for a close friend of mine, and regrettably, it couldn't be finished before, on put on hold until, you returned to Hogwarts.

For a moment I was surprised that my father had anyone he could call a friend, before I realised he was probably talking about other vampire hunters, and what that 'situation' probably involved.

Until we meet again my little lion cub.

Your father,

Tarea Hugar.

I hated that nickname even more since I'd been sorted into Gryffindor- it almost felt like he had been right about who I would turn out to be the whole time.

Having finished the letter, I turned to the owl that my father had sent, that was staring at me like it was spying on me for him.

"If you're waiting for a reply, you're not going to get one." The bird shuffled its wings, and with an intelligence I wouldn't have previously expected from the bird, it took off through the open window, leaving me only with Lawrence and Cecil, and Leo and my mother to reply to, respectively.

(A/N): Elaine's reaction to Leo's letter, as well as the ones from her mother and her father. Tarea's owl is a Greater Sooty Owl. Also I can't ignore the fact that the chapter called 'things come in threes' is chapter 303. There's supposed to be three exclamation marks after Leo says that Audrey asked if Elaine knows what he is, but it won't let me do that, so there's just one.